Beams used in suspended drywall ceilings are well known. In such ceilings, beams are suspended by hanger wires from a structural ceiling, and sheets of drywall are secured to the suspended beams by self-tapping screws.
The beams are made by continuously roll-forming a strip of metal to fold the strip longitudinally into an inverted T cross section, with a bulb at the top, a web extending down from the bulb, and two flanges extending horizontally opposite from one another at the lower end of the web. The flanges have indentations or holes in their lower surface that capture self-tapping screws to permit the screws to penetrate the flange after passing through the drywall sheet.
Such a beam is shown, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,098, for Beam for Drywall Ceiling, incorporated herein by reference.
Suspended drywall ceilings generally extend horizontally. Occasionally, a ceiling soffit in the form of an underhang, having a two-dimensional cross-section, is formed. The drywall ceiling soffit may be made with the same kind of beams and drywall sheets used in a horizontal drywall suspended ceiling. In forming the soffit, straight beams of the kind used in such horizontal drywall suspended ceiling are individually cut and bent (i.e., the flange provides the pivot point while the web and bulb material are cut and/or removed). The bent beams may then be fastened together by drilling holes and inserting fastening screws. Conversely, the beams may be fastened together by removing a v-shaped section of the bulb and/or web material, bending the beam, and then securing the bend with a clip and fasteners. Furthermore, the beam may be straight cut into two segments, which may then be fastened together with a clip.
A plurality of beams bent in multiple directions is then used to form a beam framework for the soffit. Such work in the field is time-consuming, and often non-uniform, so that the parts do not easily fit together.
Unlike a flange that remains substantially planar when subject to bending forces, a bulb typically deforms resulting in a surface that is not substantially flat (i.e., planar). As a result, absent the use of additional hardware (e.g., a clip), a beam including a bulb may only be bent in at most a single direction.
Therefore, there exists a need for a roll-formed beam that includes pivot points on at least the top and bottom of the beam to permit contractors to form numerous shapes such as zig-zags, chicanes, question-marks, or channels with all such shapes formed with a single beam. Furthermore, such a beam may also contain an automatic locking mechanism(s), which may save time and result in uniform soffit creation.